Happy birthday Gulzar: Rare photos of the celebrated lyricist-filmmaker

Gulzar-- who is known for his contribution to Indian cinema as a lyricist, writer and director-- celebrates his 85th birthday today. (Photo: Express Archive)

Gulzar began his career under film directors Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He started his career as a songwriter with music director Sachin Dev Burman for the movie Bandini (1963). However, he got recognition only in the year of 1969 with film Khamoshi. (Photo: Express Archive)

In 1971, he penned two songs for film Guddi, of which "Humko Man Ki Shakti Dena" is still sung as a prayer song in many schools in India. (Photo: Express Archive)

Gulzar directed his first film Mere Apne in 1971, which was a remake of Tapan Sinha's Bengali film Apanjan (1969). (Photo: Express Archive)

Apart from writing songs for films, Gulzar also wrote ghazals for Ghazal Maestro Jagjit Singh's albums 'Marasim' (1999) and 'Koi Baat Chale' (2006). (Photo: Express Archive)

Gulzar was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2004, the third-highest civilian award in India. He was also bestowed with Sahitya Akademi Award and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award — the highest award in Indian cinema. (Photo: Express Archive)

Gulzar has won several National Film Awards. In fact, he won one Academy Award for Best Original Score for his composition "Jai Ho" in 2009. He was awarded the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the same song. (Photo: Express Archive)

The lyricist-filmmaker married actor Raakhee. The couple has a daughter Meghna Gulzar, who is also a filmmaker. (Photo: Express Archive)

In a recent interview, Gulzar recalled how he almost got the opportunity to work with Satyajit Ray for a Hindi adaption of his Bengali film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. "I was very disappointed when he dropped the idea of making it in Hindi, though the movie he eventually made in Bengali is such a delight," Gulzar told The Indian Express' Alaka Sahani. (Photo: Express Archive)

“Poetry is not only about romance, it speaks about everything. It documents the time when it’s written. When I started translating poetry of my contemporaries I started realising it showed the mood of the country across the years,” Gulzar told PTI talking about his upcoming book A Poem a Day, which is essentially a collection of translated poems from across the country. (Photo: Express Archive)

“I don’t need to return to films because Meghna (Gulzar) and Vishal (Bhardwaj) are making good films. Vishal has made a film on children. Meghna has made films on relevant topics too,” he told indianexpress.com while talking about his comeback as a filmmaker. (Photo: Express Archive)